Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really) — We're often asked why so many Google applications seem to be perpetually in beta. For example, Gmail has worn the beta tag more than five years. We realize this situation puzzles some people, particularly those who subscribe to the traditional definition of …

Music Labels Reach Royalty Deal With Online Stations — Internet radio, once on its death bed, may survive after all. — On Tuesday, after a two-year battle, record labels and online radio stations agreed on new royalty rates for streaming music online. Many of the music sites had argued …

Google Apps Standard Edition Findable Again — Last night we reported that Google had stripped all references and links to the free version of Google Apps from the landing page for the product. New users had just one option - to sign up for the Premier version and pay $50 per user per year after a 14 day free trial.

Facebook Flight? No, Graduation Season — As more baby boomers take to the world's most popular social network, the average age of Facebook users has risen steadily. But the site's bread and butter, kids in college and high school, haven't gone anywhere. Have they?

Hey, Online Display Ads Don't Suck After All! — Since the dawn of time, advertisers have been worried about the efficacy of online display ads. This is in part because, in the mid-1990s, they were taught that online display ads had one purpose in life, which was to get people to click on them.

Firefox stability to get a boost with multiprocess browsing — Mozilla has launched a new project called Electrolysis that aims to bring multiprocess browsing to Firefox. According to Mozilla, splitting up the page rendering workload into multiple processes will improve the browser's performance, security, and stability.

Apple Celebrates First Anniversary of App Store — Apple has started celebrating the first anniversary of the App Store with a special section on iTunes [link] highlighting their favorite applications and games. While the App Store officially launched on July 11th 2008 …

Feedburner Founder/CEO Dick Costolo To Leave Google — It's always hard to hold onto those pesky entrepreneurs after you acquire their company - the best ones always get restless and bail. Feedburner cofounder and CEO Dick Costolo will be leaving Google within the week, we've confirmed.

Where have all the white iPhones gone? — It's the reverse of Henry Ford's line about the Model T. Today you can buy any iPhone you want, as long as it's not white. — Apple (AAPL) has been having trouble keeping the entry-level white iPhone in stock since the new 3GS went on sale two and a half weeks ago.

Slide Cuts Ad Staff, Shifts Focus — Max Levchin's Slide, a San Francisco-based startup that caught the Facebook application wave early, is making a strategic shift, refocusing its revenue efforts on higher-margin premium advertising that include brand sponsorships for many of its well-known applications such as Super Poke.

Amazon Patents Detail Kindle Advertising Model — Would you buy a Kindle ebook reader from Amazon if you received a free, ad-supported version of a book for each physical copy purchased? The U.S. Patent Office has published several Amazon patents in the past 30 days that could lead the online bookseller in that direction.

New algorithm guesses SSNs using date and place of birth — Two researchers have found that a pair of antifraud methods intended to increase the chances of detecting bogus social security numbers has actually allowed the statistical reconstruction of the number using information that many people place on social networking sites.

Acer Aspire Timeline 1810T — It's not an Acer Aspire One, but it's close enough. — You could however easily mistake it for the Aspire One 751, as it's based on the same chassis with a few modifications. It also shares the 11.6" screen with 1366x768 resolution.

From Microsoft: C# and CLI under the Community Promise — First the big news: Microsoft will be applying the Community Promise patent licensing to both C# and the CLI. — The announcement was done by Peter Galli at Microsoft over at Port25 and it states (emphasis is mine):

IAC's Match Agrees To Buy People Media For $80 Million — Broad-based online dating site Match.com is buying into the targeted subscription dating business with the acquisition of People Media from private equity firm American Capital Ltd. and various investors for $80 million in cash.

Microsoft opens Hohm to energy monitoring — Microsoft opened up its Hohm Web application on Monday to U.S. users, a site that gives people a starting point for cutting home energy use. — The launch of Hohm, still in beta, was marred at least for some people, including me …

Michael Jackson funeral delivers pop in video streams — Live video streams of the Michael Jackson funeral are delivering a big jump in activity and some sites are struggling under the strain. — According to Akamai's live stream tracker, a handy link of current activity, the Jackson funeral is getting a lot of attention.

Made Men: Why Venture Capitalists Sponsor Other VCs — The big news out this week in the venture capital market is the launch of Andreessen Horowitz, a new $300 million venture capital fund co-founded by Marc Andreeseen, a tech visionary who founded Netscape Communications, the startup that triggered the Internet tsunami.